China

City guide to historical town of Lijiang With Kids The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lijiang in China is a fitting tribute to the country’s splendid past. To get a sense of what China was like in her historical glory days, wander the old streets, meet some of the ethnic minorities that call this area home or do lots of outdoor family activities such as hiking, mountain climbing and horse riding. Here is the suitcases&strollers travel guide to Lijiang with kids.

Insider’s city guide to Shanghai with kids. Tatum Hawkins is the Style Editor for City Weekend Parents & Kids magazine. As the mum of two girls Tess (4) and Rue (2), she is very familiar with moving around the city of Shanghai with kids. She tells suitcases&strollers all about the best (and worst!) bits of living in the city she has called home for the past two years, Shanghai, with kids and why you should be visiting too.

Traveling with kids doesn’t have to mean they are always eating chicken nuggets and fries. Nor should what your kids eat stop you from venturing to developing countries further afield. Even with kids on the road, you can still sample hawker and street fare as the locals do – on a small stool on the roadside – rather than feeling restricted to the hotel buffet. As proof, here are the suitcases&strollers family travel tips for 10 Asian street foods the kids will love.

The Man in Seat 61 tells suitcases&strollers his favourite train journeys with kids. Mark Smith is a career railwayman who has travelled all over the globe including from London to Tokyo via Moscow’s Trans-Siberian Railway, to Turkey, Syria and Jordan and around Hong Kong, Mongolia and Beijing. His kids Nathanel (9) and Katelijn (6) have followed him and his wife Nicolette on train journeys from the UK to Italty, Switzerland, Spain, Morocco and right across the USA from New York to Los Angeles. Wherever he goes, he always tries to sit in Seat 61 and documents his travels plus lots of other useful information for train enthusiasts on his website. Here are his really thoughtful insights into why travel by train with kids is so much more rewarding than any other form of transport.

Information about the prevalence of rabies in Asia for families traveling with kids. Rabies is not a disease you commonly hear about or associate with family travel with kids, but it is something you should be keeping on your radar. In fact, children are at higher risk of contracting rabies as they are attracted to animals and less likely to be able to avoid scratches and bites from affected animals. For anyone traveling to Asia with kids including destinations like Bali, Thailand, Vietnam, Fiji or the Philippines, here are some travel tips from International Medical Clinic in Singapore for how to avoid rabies coming into contact with your family.

If your little girls can’t get enough of the blonde bombshell that is Barbie, perhaps it’s time to embrace their love of hot pink and seek out these fantasy-like experiences. Whether it’s just an afternoon in a mall to dedicating an entire island holiday to Barbie, here are some of the most memorable kids holiday ideas for Barbie fans.

Herman Zapp and his wife Candelaria are
fulfilling their lifelong dream to explore the world and have been travelling
since 2000. Apart from a few months here and there, they have been on the road
in their 7-seater Graham-Paige 1928 from Alaska to Argentina, all around
Australia and around 13 countries in Asia. Their four children are truly global
citizens and were born in the course of their parents’ travels – Pampa (11 in the USA), Tehue (8 in
Argentina), Paloma (6 in Canada) and Wallaby (4 in Australia). Herman (currently
in Zimbabwe) tells suitcases&strollers
about the joys of permanently traveling with kids and why their life is so
much more than just an extended family holiday.

An entire fleet of airlines
all dedicated to Hello Kitty and the other Sanrio characters? Introducing Hello Kitty Jets. It sounds
surreal and gimmicky, but this is a real operational fleet of one Boeing 777ER
and five Airbus 300s. Here’s suitcases&strollers’
behind-the-scenes tour of perhaps the
most fun and unique way to fly with kids.

Adopting a child from another country is certainly not the same as planning a holiday, but it does involve international borders, multiple countries and families with young children. While every individual family’s experiences are completely different, suitcases&strollers also recognises that there is a distinct lack of information to help guide people who want to understand more about the process. With that in mind, here is a bit of a starter kit of things parents should think about if you are considering adopting a child from another country.

Think doing
an overnight flight with one newborn is hard? Matt and Alison Lumb and their
four children, Solomon (9), Xander (7), Nikki (4) and Sienna (2) are expatriate
Australians living in Asia and have travelled all over the continent to beaches
in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. But being a large family means that
vacations are not always a relaxing or easy experience and there are six
opinions to take into account. They tell suitcases&strollers
about the logistical gymnastics of travelling with a large family of four kids.

This man-made wonder is on everyone’s bucket list, but it can be difficult to visualise being there with children. In fact, it actually makes for a really fun family holiday destination. There are so many access points to the Wall that there are several different options to choose from – here are the ones that are the easiest ways to tackle the Great Wall of China with kids.

Sometimes learning about other cultures doesn’t
even require you to open the front door. Whether it’s to prep for an upcoming
holiday or just to encourage a desire to see the world, books can be an
excellent inspiration for children and adults. Here are some fun travel-themed
books for kids.

The former Wiggle may have been absent from the live shows for awhile,
but his voice continues to be a critical entertainment tool on any long
distance journey involving children. Now he is back with his own television
show, Play Along With Sam and is on
tour. Sam Moran tells suitcases&strollers
about his travel experiences, how he entertains his 3-year-old daughter on long
trips and what he does when his songs get stuck in his head.

It might not be as sexy as
Shanghai, but China’s capital city has a lot of history and culture to offer. For
parents and children, walking around exploring the vast urban sprawl is a
fascinating insight into the evolving monolith that is China. Here is the suitcases&strollers travel guide to Beijing with kids.

Kitschy and mass market, a cruise might seem
like the type of holiday for people too lazy to plan their own family
vacations. But that’s exactly what makes them so much fun. Yes, the décor is
often tacky. Yes, you may be eating buffet (a lot). Yes, your friends will
laugh. But you and your kids will enjoy yourselves more than you can imagine
and you will come back super relaxed. And isn’t that what a holiday is all
about? Here are 10 reasons why cruises make for some of the best family holidays.

China’s flashiest city is both a playground of
urban delights for adults and a memorable cultural immersion for kids. The city
is changing, growing and evolving at lightning speed as China heads towards
super powerdom, so it’s worth doing a trip to Shanghai with kids now so they can see it before all the old
traditions and heritage are lost. Here is the suitcases&strollers travel guide to old and new China with kids.